The Purpose of life for an Atheist

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Thats great that youre planning on studying religion, Bubba. Religion and society sounds like a great subject to study. Theres actually a class on religion in my school that ive been wanting to take.

First of all, as not to anger anyone, my position on religion is “dont push your trip,” hehe. I am not a religious person, and i would never try to convince others that their religion is wrong. Likewise, i dont appreciate it when people tell me that theres no hope for me, im going to hell, jesus is the only way, et cetera. When its not arguing and yelling, I love having discussions about religion.

[FONT=Times New Roman]SKIP THIS IF YOU DONT GIVE A CRAP ABOUT MY BELIEFS! :smiley:
I dont like to consider myself an atheist because i dont actively NOT believe in god. I just dont think god has a place in my life. I really dont like the idea of worshipping someone or thing. Also, I dont like the values that the church creates in society and the whole black and white mentality it gives a lot of people. In america, especially, i think. I havent always been this way, as a kid i used to pray every night, and i went to church every once in a while. As a kid, the idea of god watching over us comforted me, like its supposed to.
But even as a little kid, i recognized that its just easier to believe in a god than to accept proven facts. Now that im older and dont need the comfort, i prefer to think that everything is under my own control, there is no fate, no destiny, and god isnt the cause of everything that happens. I like to understand myself and my surroundings, and im not satisfied with the answers religion gives. Religion, in my opinion, makes people submissive, and I refuse to stand by and accept things that i dont think are right.
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Sorry, couldnt stay on topic. I’ll answer the question now.

Anyway, my purpose in life is just to live it, see what comes my way and make the best of it. It has nothing to do with what happens after I die. I dont give a thought to afterlife, i dont think i really ever have. Living in the present and enjoying it is much more important to me. More than anything, would like to be fully in touch with myself and comfortable with who I am. After that, understanding myself devoid of influences is most important.

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  • According to some Native American legends (Cherokee more specifically) animals are responsible for the creation of the world as we know it.
  • An Egyptian creation myth is that land stemmed from the chaos of flooding oceans. Eventually the waters receded and dry land became inhabitable.
  • An Aztec creation myth comes from the death and murder of divine spirits.
  • In yet another creation story, God created the world in 6 days, along with a day of rest.

The difference between those 4 examples? Over 1 billion people believe in the last one.

I say God doesn’t exist. To me it just doesn’t make sense. But thats just my opinion. I am entitled to my own opinion just as you are entitled to yours. I’m off to bed. Have a good night/day/afternoon/evening or whatever it is in whatever timezone you happen to call home. :slight_smile:

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I agree with one point and disagree with the other. You, and noone for that matter, should ever just stand there and accept things. ESPECIALLY if you don’t feel they are right. Always question yourself. Blind faith is just that, blindness.

About the submissive thing… In a way yes, but mostly no. Religion is a wonderful thing for a great number of people. Even Christianity, if you can look past the corruption and the wrong-doings of men, the church has done and continues to do much for the community and the world. Yes there are some bad things going on but you will get that in an organiztion run by men because men are corruptable beings.

Religion offers hope, love, comfort, and salvation. For many people, the only thing keeping them going is the hope of a better tomorrow. A better next year. A better life beyond this one. While I do not believe in any of it, I do feel that it is necessary for the benefits of religion far outweigh its negative aspects.

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I like you already L.Lepiano,

Could it be that you’re a old member that left and has come back with a new name by any chance ?

Hahahaha, I’m quite sure of that, though I’m quite pleased to be liked C:-)

BACK ON TOPIC… lol,
Being religious or not religious doesn’t really depend on intelligence (though in some cases ignorance plays a factor), however most scholarly Christians have struggled with their religion. This has been true from Augustine to Darwin… The greatest western thinkers have tried to explain how the trinity is possible, how God could be man…etc.etc.etc. Basically they resorted to faith because they could not explain such things.

But why? Societal pressures, emptiness in their life… I’d like to think that these extremely logical men looked in part at what they could explain. Most of them (up until Galileo) relied on Aristotle’s philosopy to explain the universe… And Aristotle had a theory about a Prime Mover. He was using flawed science and he could not explain what he observed without believing that. So basically (HUGE SIMPLIFCATION COMING UP), people were religious as long as religion was the best explination for what they saw and experienced…In my opinion that time is fading, and my life will have meaning in trying to understand the important questions in life. “The unexamined life is not worth living” - Socrates… Whether Christian, atheist or whatever, there is no fufilment in life without examination…

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While I do beleive in God, and I do think that Christ is the son of god, I dont in the bible… I still think David Cross says it best:

Years and years of sientific research, meaningless, tons and tons of evidence; nope you’re wrong, it all started with a tree, a magical snake and 2 people. Yep, all that research and facts, no its wrong: Its all about the magical talking snake, adam, eve, and some stupid tree that we got from one book, everybody else is just wrong.

yes, that was sarcasm…

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This will seem a little off topic but I can assure you that it’s not. Please think about this a little before slapping down “no, no way, how stupid is that”. Does anyone here beleive in supernatural beings? Has anyone ever seen one of those T.V. programmes about people and their experiences with them and sort of thought “hmmm, maybe that did actually happen” or something like that thats sort of made you wonder and maybe brought you to believe in it a little?

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supernatural beings?
(this already has its own thread but it does tie in with whats been said here)

Ghosts ?
No… there is no solid evidence to suggest they exist. There are plenty of documentaries on it but none have ever showed proof.

As engery is never lost, it just changes form, and we do contain energy, so it is understandable that people think that this energy can exist outside the body.

However when you look at a celular level, the energy in our bodies is created by chemical gradents between Sodium, Potasium, and Cloride. Change in these removes the cells charge and the energy (electricity) is gone.
So when you die this energy can’t leave the body, it is still in the body, the chemicals are still there, just the gradent between them is gone.

Aliens
Yes… The is no proof at all that aliens exist… But based on pure mathimatical probability, other life exists without a doubt.

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Can anybody here say they do beleive in the supernatural? You’ll see why I’m saying this soon enough…

As for aliens I agree with you there. Theres no way we can be the only life form given the size of space. There has to be another life form no matter how undeveloped or old somewhere.

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Originally Posted by moncreyweasel
Religion, in my opinion, makes people submissive, and I refuse to stand by and accept things that i dont think are right.

I agree in that I think too many people are scared into religeon because they fear whatever relavent God. I think it is just down to your personal opinion. Like I have already said I beleive in God but I don’t beleive in some parts of the Bible. I think the Bible was written for that “audience” if you will (can’t think of a better word right now) and that you need to interpret it in your own way and decide for yourself what seems realistic. These people were just writting it from their point of view, they wern’t scientists so I feel that that is the reason for science proving that a lot of the Bible simply cannot be true.

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first: no, i don’t believe in supernatural stuff,…

without trying to offend you,

can you agree on my opinion that the bible contains glamorized and invented stories, and could also exist if there was no god? (aka. is no sign for the existance of a god?)

can you agree that all wonders, things seen as supernatural (==sudden healings, whatever) could have happened if there was no god?

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lol, as a Christian, I try and help atheists realize their lifelong mistake.

ditto

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first: no, i don’t believe in supernatural stuff,…
Well that bit got me nowhere lol…

without trying to offend you
Well… firstly on that I applogise to everyone for my previous remarks on this thread, I was out of place and I don’t know why I got so wound up :S. Secondly I spent most of life, as you guys put it, trying to make Christians realise their life long mistake so that’s why I don’t preech (that much) and I can understand why someone won’t beleive in God when most Christians probably couldn’t

can you agree on my opinion that the bible contains glamorized and invented stories, and could also exist if there was no god? (aka. is no sign for the existance of a god?)
I’m just out of bed so I can’t think of something to back it up… but yes, I agree… :goatee:

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I’m glad you mentioned that, because I’m not just trying to be argumentative. This little bit here…

There is a tone of evidence to support evolution and Darwinism that explains how man came about.
Now while they don’t have all the pieces. I would say they have 80-90% of it worked out… There are some missing links in the fossils, but it’s only a matter of time before they fill it all in.

Especially the whole 80-90% part. You did mention “you would say…80-90%.” I think it’s important to point out that’s more of a personal opinion than anything based on scientific fact. As for the missing link issue, it’s more than simply a matter of filling in some holes in the evolutionary chart. Not a single fossil has ever been found that can conclusively be called “the missing link”, let alone “a missing link.” A lot of what has been found has later been discovered to be something completely different.

They have shown in Petri dishes that under the climatic conditions of early earth that simple molecules left on their own can form amino acids and given enough time would they should form proteins, the building blocks of life.

You’re absolutely right that scientists have been able to create amino acids in what they assume were the climactic conditions of early earth. The problem that persists is that ALL living organisms are composed of only “left-handed” amino acids. Again, that’s every living thing on this planet. When scientists conduct their experiments to produce these amino acids, they come up with an equal number of left and right-handed amino acids. That’s fine when talking about non-living things, but living tissue cannot exist with left and right-handed amino acids. All efforts to create only left-handed amino acids, or even a significant majority of one or the other has failed.
YOU may feel that they’re that close to having it worked out, but scientifically they haven’t. Spontaneous generation of life is still elusive.

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@jokun: so how about life on Mars?
they found traces of microorganisms that lived on mars.

Spontaneous generation of life is extremely likely!
it just needs enough time and space.

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I’m glad you mentioned that, because I’m not just trying to be argumentative. This little bit here…

Nope… I agree with everything you just said…

I feel its 80-90% complete… I don’t have any reputable figures that make that claim…

And they are not looking for “a missing link” there are a few holes here and there from what I understand.

As for the amino acids, by the sounds of it you know more on the topic than i do.

But the fact the fact remains that there is plenty of evidence that explains how we came about.
While we may not have all the evidence, we are talking about millions of years of evolution, it’s no small task to find fossils for all the life that has existed over that period of time and link them together.

The only question is, how many pieces of a jig saw puzzle do you need to have in place before you can confidently say what the puzzle is.

For me there is more than enough pieces of the puzzle to say confidently that it is evolution.

But I have no doubt, that even when they have the entire puzzle some religious people will still not accept it.
They will reinterpret the bible before they accept the hard evidence that is in front of their face.
And if they can’t reinterpret the Bible, then the Bible is still right and all the scientific evidence was faked by God to test their faith.
Or it was created by the Devil to lead them a stray.

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No they haven’t. Your statement should read “they found possible traces.” There have been several instances where scientists believe to have found what may be evidence of life on Mars, and in every case there are plenty of other scientific explanations as to how these things formed.

The key here is that for every expert that believes it to be proof of the existence of extraterrestrial life, you’ll find another who doesn’t, and neither can prove the other wrong.

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That’s the big difference between your beliefs and mine. You’re convinced that you have enough pieces of the puzzle, but I have all the evidence I need as well. Everything I’ve ever learned about the complexity of life has led me to my conclusion. I have my pieces of the puzzle.
You’re absolutely certain that the theory of life from nothing will be undeniably proven someday. That’s fine. For you.

I am absolutely certain that won’t happen, though. ‘Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities though not beheld’(Heb 11.1) You’ve got it, I’ve got it. Ya gotta have faith.

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well that makes a lot of indices for the Spontaneous generation of life.
where are those research results that point in the opposite direction?

They will reinterpret the bible before they accept the hard evidence that is in front of their face.

that’s exactly what I think too.
there will always be space to believe for those who want to.
and it’s fine if those who want to believe do that.

but you cannot see religion on a scientific level.

is there any real evidence that could point out the correctness of the religious point of view?

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hi guys, i like these discussions coz i can see how different people believe in certain things and to wot extent. as for me, i dont believe in god, im a science man myself. i just dont believe that one being created life itself. here come the quotes.

hhmmm u must have slept through history class, ever heard of cromagnum man??

LoL. i can imagin it now, u ascend to heaven.

god- u heard my word from that guy on kirupa forums didnt u.
me- uummm nooooooo
god- dont lie to me i KNOW AALLLLLL
me- but if u know all, how can u not know that i didnt know that you know!?
god-… shut up and go through.

Gods coming is near when there are wars upon wars…

yes and rain is coming when there are clouds upon us. and ants are upon us when food is near. and hobos are upon us when change is dropped.

LoL. u have no idea how much i laughed at that.

i went to church once with my girlfriend b4 we went out and i gotta say it was the most boring thing ive ever been to. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH GOD BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH JESUS BLAH BLAH BLAH… now fill this plate with money or god will smite you. lol.

How is a church a holy place? i could get a bunch of god lovers together and read from the bible and they wouldnt have any less faith.

also im a bit confused by sumthing. adam and eve were supposed to be the first humans on earth right, but they were living with animals such as deer and rabbits. yet they have found frozen cave men and not to mention countless dinosaur bones that have been predated back billions of years, if adam and eve came b4 cromagnum man then why isnt their bones of traditional animals fossilised, and if they came after then they wernt the first people on earth.

sumone wanna clear that up for me???

anyway back to the ORIGINAL question, athiests ultimate goal is not to commit suicide. i would think christians would want to to that, i mean according to them, when u die u go to god and live in eternal happiness, so why not just kill urself right now and be with god and have 77virgins and unlimited mcdonalds and neva get fat?

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Here’s a few articles. Not nearly all that’s available for someone willing to spend some more time on it. As I mentioned, there’s no evidence that’s been brought forth that doesn’t have an alternate explanation (and the experts to back it up).

http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/May97/ShockedCarb.html
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9801/15/contaminated.rock/
http://astrobiology.arc.nasa.gov/news/expandnews.cfm?id=1168

there will always be space to believe for those who want to.
and it’s fine if those who want to believe do that.

but you cannot see religion on a scientific level.

is there any real evidence that could point out the correctness of the religious point of view?

I’m not going to pretend that the miracles recorded in the Bible can stand up to scientific scrutiny. I don’t think that the earth was created in 5 days, or even necessarily 5,000 years. The wording used in Genesis about the creation of the earth doesn’t have to mean exactly that.
A being that could create a world and a universe in such balance would certainly be able to accomplish things more amazing than I could comprehend.
Funny thing is that there’s stuff in the Bible that does mesh well with modern science. It refers to the “circle of the earth,” and how it’s “hanging upon nothing.” Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a textbook, but I don’t think it’s a book of nursery rhymes, either.